Safety officials partially suspended operations at Hudbay’s Lalor mine last week after a piece of loose ground fell and struck a worker.
The worker was not injured but the mishap prompted the Manitoba government to suspend development face activity at the mine for about 12 hours last Thursday, Feb. 12.
“This event is taken seriously by Hudbay and is being investigated with the appropriate team,” said Rob Winton, head of Hudbay’s Manitoba operations.
On the morning of Feb. 12, the Lalor employee reported being hit by “loose,” as it is known in mining, during his night shift, Winton said.
“The employee was taken to the Snow Lake Health [Centre] as per procedure and thankfully was not injured,” he said.
Winton said all loose incidents are reportable to the province’s Mine Safety Branch (MSB), which requires the scene to be undisturbed until it says otherwise.
But due to the timing of report, the morning blast had already taken place, thus disturbing the scene, Winton said.
The MSB issued a stop-work order for all development face activity until it was satisfied Hudbay was adequately managing risk at Lalor.
Winton said the order was lifted at 9 pm on Feb. 12, about 12 hours after it took effect. All development work returned to normal at that time.
A provincial spokeswoman confirmed that no injuries were reported in the incident.
In addition to the stop-work order, the province issued four improvement orders for Hudbay. The orders related to securing and maintaining the scene of an incident, ensuring that drilling and blasting activities are carried out in a safe manner, and ensuring appropriate ground control procedures exist.
The stop work order impacted only development work at the face of the mine. Winton said all other mine operations, including mucking, screening and bolting, proceeded as usual.
Winton said Hudbay is working closely with government officials to ensure Lalor and all other company operations maintain a high standard of safety.
“Once the events and root causes [of the Lalor incident] are determined, the appropriate actions will be taken to further reduce the risk of underground mining at Hudbay,” he said.
